A newly discovered dinosaur species has been named "Mojoceratops" in
honour of its dramatic bone frill.

Mojoceratops perifania, a hippopotamus-sized herbivore related to the triceratops which lived around 75 million years ago, has a large, spectacular bone frill above its head. Its discoverer, Nicholas Longrich, was trying to think of a name for it while drinking with colleagues, and the name "Mojoceratops" popped up.

Dr Longrich, a palaeontologist at Yale University, told Science Daily: "It was just a joke, but then everyone stopped and looked at each other and said, 'Wait -- that actually sounds cool.

"I tried to come up with serious names after that, but Mojoceratops just sort of stuck."

After coming up with the name, he looked up the etymology of the word "mojo". He found it made perfect sense for the new dinosaur, which like its relatives is believed to have used its large frill in courtship displays. He said: "I discovered that 'mojo' is an early 20th-century African-American term meaning a magic charm or talisman, often used to attract members of the opposite sex.

"This dinosaur probably used its frill to attract mates, so the name made sense."

Mojoceratops is a member of the chasmosaurine ceratopsid family, which lived in what is now North America. They are defined by their frills on their skulls, although with its large heart-shaped display, "Mojoceratops is the most ostentatious," says Dr Longrich.

The dinosaur was discovered when Longrich noticed that a fossil at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, labelled as a Chasmosaurus, didn't fit with other examples of that species. "The fossils didn't look like anything we'd seen before. They just looked wrong," he said. After examination, he determined that it was a new species, and now eight partial skulls have been classified as Mojoceratops.

Longrich is aware that the name is unconventional, but he doesn't worry. "You're supposed to use Latin and Greek names, but this just seemed more fun," Longrich said. "You can do good science and still have some fun, too. So why not?"